Wading through Darkness
by KaosDemon
Summary: It's finally happened, Ichigo has died and turned into a hollow. What happens when two espada find him wandering through Karakura town?
1. Part 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Warning: character death, torture

Wading through the Darkness

_The Darkness consuming,_

_Falling through to its depths,_

_I feel it sucking me in,_

_Pulling me to the bottom,_

_Leaving me to lie there,_

_Alone and suffering,_

_When it all comes to an end,_

_Will I be alone in the shadows?_

**Part 1**

He slowly opened his eyes, only to close them again; the world around him was too bright. He opened them again and found that he was lying under a street lamp in the blinding world. He slowly pushed himself up from the ground that he lay on, but as soon as he sat up he fell back down clutching his chest. It hurt so much, why did he feel as if he had been shot through the chest? He sat up again, this time prepared for the oncoming pain and braced himself, but it wasn't as bad the second time and he managed to get onto his feet. Leaning on the lamppost he panted heavily and looked to the ground and something shiny caught his eye.

Lying on the ground was something slim and dark black, he took a deep breath and leaned towards the ground and grabbed the thing. It was a thin black sword but once he had it in his hand it dissolved into nothingness. He quickly sucked in a breath and raised his head to the sky, then Ichigo howled.

X-X-X

Uryu turned his head towards the unmistakable howl of a hollow, he quickly ran towards the source of the noise. Along the way he met up with Orihime and Chad, and the three of them raced towards the sound.

"Where's Ichigo?" Uryu asked Chad and Orihime. Chad shrugged and Orihime responded.

"I didn't see him at school today, he's probably training somewhere"

Uryu nodded his head in understanding, and they came upon a dark alley and a large figure hunched over a smaller one. Uryu, Orihime, and Chad surrounded the two figures and took their fighting stances.

"That will be enough Hollow!" Ishida bellowed at the Hollow, but it just stared at him with its cold golden eyes and continued what it was doing. Within seconds they heard a shrill scream and the figure beneath the Hollow disappeared. Then the Hollow turned to face them.

It had bone white skin covering its entire body, with dark red markings on its arms, legs, and the tip of its tail. Its hands were clawed, spikes were protruding from its shoulders, it had a tail and clawed feet like a raptor, and it wore a tattered black cloth around its waist. There was a shaggy mane of Orange hair from its head but its mask was the worst. The mask looked like a skull with a horrid grin and the hollows black and gold eyes made it that much worse.

The hair on the hollow was the same shade as Ichigo's _but Ichigo was out training and there was no way he_ _would become a hollow_ Uryu thought. From the looks on Chad and Orihime's faces they had the same thought running through their heads but soon that was forgotten as the Hollow bellowed and rushed Uryu.

Ichigo charged at the skinny man and quickly reached forward to grab him but his fist closed on nothing. He looked around, confused as to where his prey had gone and found his prey behind him along with two other humans. He looked at them confused, he didn't remember there being 3 of them, he shrugged it off and dropped to four legs and ran at them. This time he found himself pinned to the ground with a luminescent arrow in his arm.

He tried to move but was stuck, he roared angrily at the arrow and pulled his arm through the arrow and was now mobile only to find a rush of the annoying things coming straight towards him. He quickly turned and ran but found a large man behind him with a strange arm. The man ran up and punched him in the stomach with his strange arm and Ichigo was blasted back, crashing into a nearby wall destroying it.

Momentarily stunned he slumped to the ground and arrows barraged him causing him to scream out in pain. A cloud of dust surrounded him and the neighboring area and he used his claws to break the arrows sticking out of him, causing them to disappear, and he quickly leaped to a nearby roof.

Uryu tried to disperse the cloud of dust but that only made it worse; by the time that it was gone the Hollow was too. Uryu sighed,

"Guys that Hollow is probably ran away but watch your back, it could still be lurking around"

Orihime and Chad nodded and the three of them headed on their way. Orihime Trailed behind the other two, thinking of what Ichigo could be doing at this moment. She sighed dreamily and looked into the sky, she only barely registered a white shape rapidly dropping towards her and she screamed before it was muffled.

Chad and Uryu turned around instantly at the scream and they saw Orihime get dragged away by the hollow they were after. Chad raced after them with Ishida right behind him as they followed the Hollow into a nearby park.

_Why hadn't we felt his reiatsu? _Ishida thought as him and Chad sprinted after the Hollow and Orihime. They came to a crossroads and Ishida went left and Chad right hoping that one of them would find the Hollow that had taken Orihime.

Ichigo looked at the squirming girl in his hands as he raced along, she looked fairly tasty but these annoying humans were chasing him so how would he get a chance to eat her? He continued running on two legs until he ran straight into a dead end.

He looked around and noticed that he could no longer move forward, and that the scrawny human was behind him. He looked up and saw that the building above him was really tall, how could he get up the building with the girl.

While Ichigo was contemplating as much as a hollow can on this Uryu caught up with him. "Release her Hollow!" Ishida yelled at the Hollow.

Ichigo looked at the Quincy questioningly and then roared in retaliation to his words. The girl in his arms started squirming more so he casually glanced down at her and effortlessly crushed her throat which he was holding her by.

"NOOOO!" Ishida yelled and fired an arrow at the Hollow who just swatted it away, he had learned the arrowman's tricks and would not fall for them anymore. He heard a "SNAP!" from the girl he was holding and looked down to see her dangling from his hand limp and lifeless.

Ichigo looked at the girl's body for a second before looking at the roof above him, and realizing that since the girl had stopped squirming he could now carry her in his mouth. He instantly dropped onto four feet and leaped onto the roof above.

Ishida tried to comprehend what had just happened, Orihime had just been killed before their eyes and they had done nothing but stand there watching as the Hollow just left with her. Uryu snapped out of his daze and sank to the ground, while Chad slowly came up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Ishida looked up at Chad and slowly nodded his head, they had to go find Orihime's body and somehow tell Ichigo.

X-X-X

Ichigo meanwhile ran on rooftops with the girl in his mouth until he came to the end of the buildings. He stopped and smelled the air; he only smelled normal humans and not that Arrowman or the big guy. He dropped to the ground from the roof of the building he was on and rose onto two feet.

He took the girl out of his mouth and carried her with his arm and walked until he found a place of no humans. The place had a few trees and it was green everywhere, it looked empty though. He suddenly felt a pain in his chest and in surprise he dropped the girl and fell to his knees panting.

He felt so empty inside, so hollow, he needed to eat. He looked towards the girl that he had brought with him and hungrily panted. He shakily stood on four legs and got close to the girl. He looked at the girl and saw her chest slowly rising and falling. He glared at her, he didn't like it when she moved, and he put his claw on her chest and found the source of the movement. He took his claw that was on her chest and pierced it into her ; he reached around in her chest for a while and then grabbed the annoying beating organ and ripped it out.

He sniffed it for a minute and then tossed the useless thing aside; he saw the spirit of the girl become unchained from the body and stare at him in terror. His eyes widened at the girl, she was shimmering with such a bright light, such a full light. He grabbed her before she could escape and ripped the soul in half and raised her corpse above him. The sweet light encased him and he shuddered in pleasure, he then shoved the halves of the girl into his mouth and fell to the ground.

He shuddered and shook on the ground and then lay still, he felt whole, strong, and smarter. He looked around, he felt as if he had been here before. He shrugged the feeling away and stood up, he then looked around what should he do now? He no longer felt the emptiness but it may come back, he should have a human in case the emptiness returned.

Ichigo knew not of where he was or anything so he just chose a path and started walking.

X-X-X

Ishida slowly walked forward occasionally bumping into people but not caring. He stumbled over to Urahara shop to find Ichigo, Chad right behind him the entire time.

No one was outside the shop so they just went inside, and found Kisuke, Tessai, Renji, and Rukia sitting around the main table. Ishida sighed and collapsed on the floor; Rukia immediately got up and rushed over to help him while Chad leaned against a wall.

"What happened?" Rukia asked in a worried tone.

"Hollow" Chad replied simply from the wall.

Renji looked at them and scoffed. "One little Hollow did this to you? You guys are pathetic; it wasn't even strong enough to cause the scanner to go off"

Ishida suddenly stood up, scaring Rukia, and glared intensely at Renji. "It was strong and it was smart! I don't know how it didn't show up on your scanner it must have been hiding it's Reiatsu somehow, but because of that thing we lost O-" Ishida choked back a sob and Rukia came over to make sure he was ok.

"Lost what?" Kisuke asked. Ishida glared at Kisuke and Chad responded for him.

"Orihime is gone"

That shut everyone up and even Rukia stopped what she was doing, they all stared at Chad and Uryu.

"What do you mean gone?" Renji asked "like kidnapped?"

Ishida gave Renji the most hate filled glare that he could muster "no not kidnapped, she was killed by your so called 'weak' hollow"

Rukia burst into tears and ran off. Kisuke looked at Uryu solemnly "where was Ichigo?" he asked.

Ishida looked at Kisuke confused "we thought he was training with you"

Kisuke shook his head "no he was training with the vizards but he should have been back by now"

Renji jumped to his feet, "I'll go check at his house! What if the hollow attacked his family or something?" Renji grabbed his coat and ran out the door and into the street. Urahara watched Renji's back as he left and then turned to the rest of the group,

"well that was out of character"

X-X-X

Renji ran through the streets towards Ichigo's house, he was going to go find Ichigo and beat some sense into him for not protecting Orihime. Renji would never tell anyone but he secretly had a crush on the kind, shy, sweet-hearted girl. Tears fell from Renji's eyes as he ran towards the Kurosaki home.

X-X-X

Ichigo's feet had led him to an average two story house with what he could tell three people inside. He prowled around the house; all of the doors and windows were closed and locked except for one on the second floor that was wide open.

Ichigo quickly climbed up to the second floor, latched onto the window frame, and swung himself inside the room. The room was plain with a desk a bed and a closet. He started to leave the room when he smelled something wonderful. Ichigo quickly ran over to the closet and easily tore off the door. He looked around inside the closet eagerly but it was empty, but still that smell inside it lingered.

He went towards the door leading out of the room and tore it open and headed downstairs where he smelled human and the same thing from the closet.

X-X-X

The Kurosaki family was happily enjoying dinner with Yuzu and Ishiin casualy chatting while Karin ate silently. Suddenly a loud thumping noise filled the house and Yuzu and Ishiin stopped talking immediately.

Yuzu looked hesitantly up the stairs, "wh-what was that?"

Ishiin glanced up the stairs, thinking it was just Rukia coming in through the window and tripping or something he tried to change the topic.

"Oh it was probably nothing" he assured them "so Yuzu, what are you going to make for desert?"

That quickly got Yuzu's mind off of the noise and she started talking away about flan and ice cream, but Karin looked back at the stairs. She soon dismissed the noise but then they heard it again and Ishiin stood up. He motioned for Yuzu to be silent and slowly headed towards the stairs.

He looked up the stairs but saw nothing, only darkness, but he sensed that something was off so he made his way up the stairs. He looked around and saw that Ichigo's bedroom door had been ripped off of its hinges and was lying in the hallway.

He warily entered his son's room and glanced around, everything was normal except that the closet door had also been torn away and there were claw marks on the windowsill. He moved to inspect them more closely when he heard screaming from downstairs. He stumbled down the stairs and saw a hollow in his dining room holding Yuzu by her neck and Karin punching and kicking it.

The hollow noticed his presence and threw Yuzu aside; she crashed into a wall and slumped down into unconsciousness. Karin quickly ran over to go help her sister.

The hollow turned and faced Ishiin; it opened its mouth and breathed in his scent, then spread its arms and ran towards him.

X-X-X

Ichigo shot one of his arms forward to attack the delicious smelling man but the man vanished before him. He looked around confused then felt a blow in the back of his neck and he was on the ground. Ichigo quickly got up and grabbed the man's arm.

The man hadn't expected Ichigo to get up that fast and was caught off guard when he was grabbed.

Ichigo took the man and threw him against a wall, causing the man to hit the back of his head and spew up blood. He approached the man who was now on his knees trying to get his eyes focused; he reached out and pulled him close to his face. He opened his mouth wide, but then stopped and looked down at the sword that now stuck out of his side.

"Drop him hollow!" a strong voice emanating from front door said. The sword was then painfully retracted from Ichigo's side and he dropped the man and clutched his wound. He turned towards the newcomer and smiled as the wonderful smell filled the room.

"Shinigami" He said in a gravely, distorted voice. His wound instantly healed and he looked down for the previous man but he was gone. Ichigo roared and anger and turned towards the redheaded man in the doorway.

But the man was gone and then suddenly behind Ichigo with his sword wrapped around Ichigo's torso. Ichigo screeched as the spikes on the sword dug into his chest painfully. The red haired man then quickly flicked his hand and the spikes on the sword dug deep into Ichigo but were then soon retracted and Ichigo shot out one of his arms towards the man, but he had disappeared and Ichigo sunk to the ground.

X-X-X

Renji ran over to where three fourths of the Kurosaki family were huddled in the corner. "Are you guys ok?" he asked them. Karin shook her head and motioned to Yuzu.

"Yuzu's out cold and dad doesn't seem to be doing that good" she responded to the strange red haired tattooed man. Renji nodded and noticed the hollow was regenerating quickly so he hurried up with the girl.

"Where's your brother?" he asked Karin quickly.

Karin shook her head "I don't know, we haven't seen him in a while"

Renji shook his head angrily and lifted Ishiin onto his back while Karin carried Yuzu and they ran past the regenerating hollow and out of the house. They ran down the street and heard the hollows angry cries behind them.

He shuddered as he was running and looked down to find a dark red splotch seeping through the side his hakama top, he coughed but kept on running.

_That thing was freaking strong, Ichigo, where are you?_ Renji thought and he ran with Karin down the street and towards Urahara shop.

X-X-X

Ichigo roared and got up, that shinigami was stronger than him, he needed to beat him! He needed to get stronger! He roared again and ran from the now empty house, he ran towards the park, towards its comforting darkness.

X-X-X

A rift opened into the real world and two men stepped out of it, one had black hair with twin green lines going down his eyes and what looked to be half of a white helmet, while the other had bright blue hair and a skeletal jaw on one side of his face.

The blue one jumped down onto the grass below and looked over to his partner, "This place seems kind of barren, doesn't it Ulquiorra?" The black haired man, Ulquiorra just nodded and looked around.

"It seems that we're being watched, Grimmjow" Ulquiorra said.

Grimmjow got into his fighting stance and quickly scanned the area. "What is it? A human? Or a shinigami!"

Ulquiorra shook his head and pointed to a bush where Grimmjow spotted two glowing yellow eyes. He sighed and lightened his stance "it's just a menos" he then glanced over to Ulquiorra "why'd you even mention him?"

Ulquiorra sighed and walked over to the bush and after much rustling and growling from the bush Ulquiorra came back dragging the writhing thing by its leg. "This is not a menos, Grimmjow"

Grimmjow looked at the hollow that was thrashing on the ground in confusion, "there's absolutely no spiritual pressure coming from this thing so if it's not a menos then what is it?"

Ulquiorra sighed and closed his eyes and the hollow stopped thrashing and stood still. Suddenly its spiritual pressure spiked considerably and Grimmjow shuddered.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled at Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra merely shook his head and stared at Grimmjow in contempt.

"Don't be trash Grimmjow, this hollow was merely hiding its spiritual pressure, it seems it was only recently turned and is already an Adjuchas" Ulquiorra said emotionlessly "This one seems rather smart though, to be able to mask its reiatsu. I have decided. Take this to Lord Aizen while I remain here and finish the surveillance mission, there's said to be a very strong soul reaper in this area"

Grimmjow flared at that "what! I'm not missing out on the action just to take this stupid thing back with me! I refuse to!" Ulquiorra looked at Grimmjow and walked up to him dragging the unconscious hollow with him. He came up to Grimmjow's face and looked him square in the eye,

"Don't make me remind you, sexta, who is in charge here. Don't defy me again or I will deem you trash, and trash always gets disposed of." Ulquiorra left the hollow and espada and sonido'd away.

Grimmjow huffed and lifted the hollow onto his shoulder "you better not cause me trouble" he grunted and sonido'd to the Garganta and leapt through it.

X-X-X

_ Rain pelted the ground as Ichigo walked through the streets of Karakura. How dare the Vizards kick him out, it was that stupid Hiyori's fault for mentioning his mother anyways. _

_ He huffed and walked until he came to the river where his mother had died. He stood with his head lowered until he heard the roar of a hollow and felt its spiritual pressure that shook hi s very being. He sighed and headed towards the hollow._

_ At least now he could blow off some steam, he took Zangetsu off of his back and raced towards the hollow and unknowingly to his demise._

X-X-X

Ichigo awoke with a start and realized that he was face down on a cold marble floor. He struggled to get up until he realized that he was being held down by two large men.

He heard a low chuckling and looked up to see a man seated in a white throne in front of him. He angrily whipped his tail around; he did not like the look of this man.

"Good job Grimmjow, you just brought back our trump card to winning this war"

Ichigo looked up to see the man on the chair nod at the blue haired man. The blue haired man was shocked and then smirked and left from Ichigo's sight. The first man then waved a hand at Ichigo and the two men holding him down let him go and then left.

Ichigo got up onto four feet and looked angrily at the man. He was smart enough to know when he was beat so he just stayed still waiting for the other man.

The other man got up off of his throne and came towards Ichigo who just stood his ground and growled. The man, Aizen, just chuckled again.

"Ichigo Kurosaki" he said and came up right in front of Ichigo, "those orange locks are unmistakable". He reached to touch Ichigo's hair but Ichigo just growled and backed up.

"oh come now, I know you can speak. If you couldn't what kind of Adjuchas would you be? Hmm" Aizen smiled sadistically and scanned his eyes over Ichigo.

"…who are you?..." Ichigo said in a ragged voice.

Aizen just laughed ten times harder "you don't recognize me at all?" he asked. Ichigo shook his head. "do you even know who you are?"

Ichigo thought for a second_ who am I? _he hadn't had enough time to actually think about that since he was always fighting or on the move. He slowly shook his head and Aizen sighed.

"well since you don't know who you are how about you have a fresh start?" Ichigo looked at the man in confusion but Aizen just kept talking. "my name is Aizen, I am the Lord of Las Noches. As of now you are Nox Graz, and you will serve directly under me." Ichigo deemed Nox stood up unexpectedly.

"I serve none!" he roared at Aizen.

Aizen simply smiled "calm down, I didn't say that there was nothing in it for you dear Nox. If you serve me I will bestow on you a power that you have never known, one so strong that you can vanquish any who cross your path."

Nox continued to glare at the man and then nodded. Aizen smiled and then held out his hand, which Nox glared at and then hesitantly took. Aizen shunpo'd the two of them into the desert and stopped over a chasm in the ground.

Nox looked at the chasm and then at Aizen "what're you do-"Aizen dropped Nox into the chasm leading to Menos forest and he turned around and smiled. Ulquiorra appeared in front of Aizen and bowed.

"My lord, my mission was unsuccessful, Ichigo Kurosaki was nowhere to be found" Aizen waved it off and looked down at the pit.

"It's fine Ulquiorra, I have a new mission for you, in one month's time go to Menos forest and find the hollow that Grimmjow brought back from your mission and bring him to me."

Ulquoirra was confused yet nodded his head and Sonido'd back to Las Noches. Aizen looked down at Menos Forest. "Let's hope that you don't let me down Ichigo Kurosaki or should I say Nox Graz."

X-X-X

Nox fell through darkness, feeling like he was floating in space until he hit the ground back first. He grunted as he impacted, his back healing instantly. Nox slowly got up and on two legs, he looked around him. The air was uncomfortably humid and there were tall skinny trees everywhere, all of them black or dark grey.

Nox slowly started forward, not knowing where he was going or why he was down here, he just kept walking until he heard a roar. His feet led him towards the source of the roar and came upon two hollows fighting with a half circle of other hollows making guttural noises and some yelling in Japanese.

He headed warily towards the half circle of hollows but a large hollow appeared in front of him. "Thiis iis a priivatee paaarty" it hissed. The hollow had the head of a snake but its legs looked like an ox and it had the arms of a human, standing on two legs.

Nox looked at the hollow casually and swiped his hand in an upwards motion, the hollow lay before him in a bloody disintegrating mess. Nox looked down at the hollow than up at the others who had now stopped everything and were staring at him wide-eyed.

One shakily rose a pointed finger at him "y-you just killed Gerejar (pronounced gair-A-har)! H-he was the best fighter around!" The other hollows grunted and growled in agreement and soon they had formed a circle around Nox.

A medium sized one on two legs approached him, it's back legs looked like that of a dog, it had spikes on its back making it look like it had wings, its mask jutted out on the sides and was covered in teeth, it had orange markings covering one eye and orange under its other eye, with a crest of horns on its head.

"you're pretty good, what's your name?" the hollow asked.

Nox paused for a while before replying, "…Nox….Nox Graz…"

The hollow looked at him strangely "ok Nox, I'm Regiro. These guys here are a member of my group and seeing as you've just defeated or strongest member it seems you've earned yourself a place with us"

Nox looked at Regiro, trying to understand his angle "…I want no part…. Your group…"

A bunch of the hollows yelled at Nox angrily "Regiro's almost a Vasto Lorde! You can't turn him down!" "let's tear him apart" "Yeah! He can't take us all on!" they cheered.

Regiro lifted a hand to silence them, he then turned to Nox "I know that you said that you don't want to be a part of our little group, but we're on our way to fighting one of the strongest hollows in the entire forest. I heard about our little conversation with 'lord' Aizen, it seems that the only way for you to get out of here is to become a Vasto Lorde. So how about we have a deal? You help us defeat the Lord of Menos Forest and we'll let you absorb him and become a Vasto Lorde?"

One of the hollows yelled out before Nox could reply "but Regiro! You were going to absorb that hollow so Aizen can make you an Arancar!"

Regiro glared at the hollow "yes I know that, but we all must make sacrifices to get what we want."

Nox raised his head and looked at Regiro "…what is it that you want?..."

Regiro looked at Nox, surprised that he could form full sentences. "I want to become an arancar so that I can defend the hollows of the forest. Even though if you absorb the Vasto Lorde I can't become one myself defeating that Vasto Lorde will help protect them and then maybe you'll put in a good word for me to Aizen"

Nox nodded "…I'll do it…"

Regiro grinned and wrapped his arm around Nox's shoulder which Nox shrugged off. "We have a strong new member of the Forest Brigade! Let's celebrate!" Regiro yelled and all of the hollows cheered, and started to rampage around the forest destroying everything, while Nox suddenly alone slowly headed after them.

X-X-X

Nox and Regiro approached a large cave, having taken two weeks to make their way through the Vasto Lordes army and into the thick of his territory. Regiro looked to Nox "are you ready to become a Vasto Lorde?" Nox stood up on two legs and nodded at Regiro.

The two of them headed into a cave and came upon the largest hollow they had ever seen, it was sitting upon a throne made up of hollows masks. It was drinking from a large mask. The hollow put the mask down and looked at Nox and Regiro revealing that its mask goblet was filled with blood.

"So you are the ones who have been devastating my forces" It said in a deep booming voice that seemed to shake the entire cavern.

"we're here to end your reign Faremir!" Regiro yelled at the large monster. It just laughed in reply to him.

"your lives will end here puny Adjuchas!" Faremir slowly rose from his throne and charged quicker than would be expected at Nox and Regiro.

Nox dodged easily as did Regiro but taking more effort. Faremir slammed its hands on the ground trying to smash Nox and Regiro. Regiro dodged and got a hit on Faremirs hand, as Faremir howled in pain Nox ran up Faremirs arm and onto his shoulders, he aimed a cero at Faremirs neck and took the shot. The cero exploded on impact at Faremirs neck and Nox flipped off of its shoulders and landed on the ground.

Regiro ran up to Nox as Faremir raged and swung its arms madly around. "Nice shot" Regiro commented while panting. Nox nodded and looked back at Faremir who had regained its composure and roared.

The enormous hollow charged at Nox, who had injured him. Regiro took his opportunity while Faremir was charging Nox to jump up on the walls and land on Faremir's back. Faremir not even feeling Regiro, continued to angrily chase Nox.

Regiro quickly scaled Faremir's back and onto the opposite shoulder that Nox had been on before. Regiro lifted one of his spiked feet and slammed it into Faremir's neck that then roared in pain and attempted to shake Regiro off.

Regiro dangled from Faremir's neck while It shook and roared. "NOX! DO IT NOW!" Regiro shouted at Nox who was standing on the ground waiting for his cue. Nox shook his head and Regiro flailed his arms. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" Regiro shouted "JUST DO IT!"

Nox solemnly lowered his head and jumped into the air, charging a cero in his hand. Once in position he slashed the cero in a horizontal pattern slicing cleanly through Faremir's neck and Regiro's body.

Both Faremir and Regiro fell to the ground, Nox immediately ran towards Regiro. "it's alright Nox" Regiro coughed " just absorb me and Faremir before it's too late" Nox shook his head in defiance. Regiro's face got serious and then calm "Nox just do it. You'll become a Vasto Lorde and make it out of this hole. The Forest Brigade is gone, there's nothing left for me to protect here."

Nox solemnly lowered his head and nodded. Regiro closed his eyes and sighed, Nox lurched over him and tore into Regiro, devouring every piece of him before he was gone. Nox felt a strong surge of power and looked solemnly to where Regiro was and he made his way to Faremir.

Faremir looked at Nox's angry eyes and at his own disappearing body and tried to scoot away but Nox was upon him in milliseconds. Nox didn't give the Vasto Lorde a chance to die before he ate him and all throughout Menos forest Faremir's screams of pain could be heard.

Nox felt an instant surge of immense power, he fell to the ground, the power was crushing and changing him in every way. Nox roared as the power took him over; his roar was heard all over Hueco Mundo.

X-X-X

Grimmjow sat up and cocked his head to the side; he distinctively heard a roar from in the distance. He immediately got off of his bed where he had been sitting on it bored and he went over to Aizen's throne room.

Aizen had been anticipating that Grimmjow would come over since he himself had heard the roar and he knew that Grimmjow being the only member of the Espada with exceptional hearing had heard it too.

Grimmjow slammed the doors to the throne room open and strode in, "Hey! You heard that roar right?" Grimmjow asked Aizen impolitely but Aizen was used to impoliteness from Grimmjow and brushed it off.

"Yes Grimmjow I did, now I want you to take Ulquiorra and bring back our noisy friend to me." Aizen said while smiling.

Grimmjow frowned "why do I have to go with that emotionless bastard?" he hissed.

"I originally gave this mission to Ulquoirra but it seems that it may now require two people instead of one" Aizen said calmly.

Grimmjow grunted and headed back out the door where Ulquiorra was waiting. Grimmjow growled at him and started walking towards the white desert with Ulquiorra trailing behind him.

X-X-X

Grimmjow approached the hole in the desert that led to the Menos Forest. He knelt near the ground and listened, after a few seconds he heard the roar again, this time less loud. "It's down there" Grimmjow told Ulquiorra who just rolled his eyes.

"Obviously" Ulquiorra remarked.

Grimmjow grimaced and jumped down into the hole and into the forest.

The two landed with a thud in the middle of the forest, they were surrounded by menos. Grimmjow growled threateningly but Ulquiorra raised his hand and silenced him.

"we are looking for the source of that incessant roaring" Ulquiorra said calmly.

One of the minor hollows spoke up, "If it's the loud one that you're looking for he's in Faremir's cave" it said quickly.

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes "why would you want to help us?" he asked it.

The hollow shifted in place and another one answered for it, "He's too strong for us!"

"He's insane and would slaughter us all!" another one shouted, soon all the hollows were piping in.

"He's too noisy!"

"He ate all my friends!"

"ENOUGH!" Ulquoirra shouted, and Grimmjow looked at him shocked. He had never seen Ulquiorra raise his voice. "You said He was in Faremir's cave did you not?" he asked.

The collective hollows nodded, "well then one of you escort us there" Ulquoirra said calmly. None of the menos moved so Grimmjow stepped forward.

"YOU!" he pointed at a random menos "take us to Faremir's cave or we'll slaughter everyone here!" Grimmjow snarled and the random menos quickly hurried towards the two espadas.

Grimmjow smirked and kicked their guide who quickly scurried towards the direction of the cave with the other menos looking on.

X-X-X

The two espada approached the cave with their Menos guide whimpering behind them. Grimmjow snarled and quickly slashed with his claws and killed the sniveling menos then returned his attention to the cave.

From deep inside the cave a low growling could be heard, and Grimmjow smirked while Ulquoirra just rolled his eyes and the two entered the cave.

The cave was pitch black but the two Espada's eyes adjusted quickly and saw that the walls of the cave were adorned with the masks of hollows, and Grimmjow's grin quickly disappeared. As they went deeper into the cave the growling eventually ceased and they came upon a large open room. Within the room was a large skeleton and an enormous throne made out of the masks and bones of thousands of hollows. Sitting upon the chair was a single hollow, who looked rather small sitting upon the large chair.

Ulquiorra approached the chair with Grimmjow slowly trailing behind him, as they got closer to the chair they noticed that the hollow on the chair was human shaped. The hollow had its hole square in the middle of its chest with black markings coming out of it from either side and going across it's chest and up to its neck, it had red fur on either side of its neck and around both its wrists, its skin was white and its nails were black, and it had a mask that looked like a skull with black markings and two large horns protruding out the top, but the most distinguishing feature was the long orange hair that flowed straight downward stopping at its lower back.

Ulquiorra stopped examining the hollow when he felt its black and gold eyes upon him. Ulquiorra looked into those eyes and saw no readable emotion on its face, which is unusual since most hollows are angry all the time thus the reason that they became hollows, this one's eyes were cold and hard.

Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed and he walked towards the chair and stopped when he reached the bottom and said casually "Lord Aizen wishes to see you". The hollows' eyes widened then returned to its neutral state and then it flash stepped to the bottom of the chair within milliseconds shocking both Ulquoirra and Grimmjow.

Grimmjow stepped closer to Ulquiorra "he doesn't look very crazy to me" Grimmjow whispered and Ulquoirra nodded in response.

"It seems he has settled down" Ulquiorra said but quieted down when he saw the orange haired hollows cold glare resting upon them. Ulquoirra looked at the hollow but then started walking back towards the center of the forest. "Lord Aizen is a busy man; it won't do us good if we are slow," Ulquiorra said walking ahead of both the hollow and Grimmjow.

Grimmjow ran up beside Ulquoirra who glared at him "shouldn't you walk with our guest so that he doesn't get lost on the way?" Ulquoirra hissed. Grimmjow looked dejectedly between Ulquoirra and the hollow that was walking behind them then sighed and slowed down to reach the orange haired hollow.

Upon reaching the hollow Grimmjow kept his pace and walked beside him. They walked in silence for a few minutes but then Grimmjow tried to make conversation, he put his hands in the pockets of his hakama and looked towards the hollow. "So I wonder what Aizen-Sama wants with you" Grimmjow started but didn't get a response. "I wonder if it's something bad" Grimmjow said and looked around the forest and towards the approaching clearing in the middle. "Maybe it's about all of those hollows that you killed and the bones around you're cave" he added.

When he turned back around he saw that the hollow had stopped and fixed Grimmjow with a hard glare. Grimmjow looked around nervously for Ulquiorra but he was already waiting at the clearing "I bet it's nothing bad or Aizen-Sama wouldn't have sent us out here personally" Grimmjow said nervously and the hollow glared for another minute then started up walking again.

Grimmjow sighed and ran up to join Ulquiorra, he hoped that this new guy wouldn't be staying with them long, he just creeped Grimmjow out.

When all three had gathered in the clearing of the forest they all sonido'd out of the forest through the hole in the roof and headed towards Las Noches.

X-X-X

Nox entered the meeting room of Las Noches and looked around, there were 11 seats at a long table, 9 of which were filled and there were two men standing on either side of the head chair. The man at the head was familiar to Nox, he had seen him before.

Nox narrowed his eyes at the man while Ulquiorra lowered his head and Grimmjow quickly did the same.

"We have brought the source of the commotion as you have asked" Ulquiorra said in a monotone voice.

"So that freak was the source of all that racket?" one of the people sitting at the table said. He had long hair and an eyepatch and his outfit had a large spoonlike collar.

Nox glared intently at the man, already despising him. The head of the table looked intently at the eyepatched one and he instantly quieted down. The man turned his gaze back to Nox.

"Thank you Ulquiorra for delivering our friend here to me, it would have been bothersome to have tracked him down and dragged him here myself." Aizen said while smiling gently.

Ulquiorra lowered his head "it was nothing my lord" he said and then went to one of the two empty seats on the long table. Grimmjow grunted and headed to the last remaining empty seat, leaving Nox standing alone in front of the table.

The man Aizen stood up from the head of the table and walked over to where Nox was standing. The people at the table looked wide eyed as their leader strode toward the newcomer. Aizen stopped in front of Nox and smiled at him.

"Welcome back Nox." Aizen said calmly. Nox grimaced and Aizen continued, "It seems that you've exceeded my expectations and successfully become a Vasto Lord" Nox grunted in reply and Aizen kept on smiling, then turned around to face the people at the table.

"Now my Espada I wish to introduce you to your new brother…" Aizen reached into his pocket and plucked out a black orb. Nox had no idea what the ball was but he could feel the power emanating from it. "Numero Cero Espada, Nox Graz!"

Nox felt an immense pain in his back and fell to his knees with his palms on the ground. The pain overwhelmed him and he shuddered with pain, he could see his mask crumbling around him, he closed his eyes and all of a sudden the pain was gone.

Nox shakily stood up and looked at the shocked faces sitting at the long table. Some of those faces were filled with fear some with awe, Nox smiled he liked the feeling of having power. Aizen stepped towards Nox and leaned in.

"Welcome to the Espada Nox" Aizen whispered then joined Nox in gazing at the seated Espada, all whilst wearing a chilling smile.

X-X-X

**AN-** ok so I pretty much have this story completely written, the story itself is in three parts, the length of the parts is about the same as this chapter. I have part two completely written and most of part 3 done so you can expect part 2 in about a month, I'm leaving for a trip soon and won't be back until then. The entire story is outlined but if you have any suggestions I'll attempt to squeeze them into the story also if you see any mistakes just point them out, I'm pretty OCD about that so it will be highly accepted if you point out any errors!

Thanks for reading!

-KaosDemon


	2. Part 2

_Disclaimer__: I don't own bleach or obviously Grimmjow wouldn't have died and there would be more hollow Ichigo appearences._

_Warning__:_

**Part 2**

Urahara Kisuke stood in front of the assembled thirteen court guard companies. Captain Yamamoto stood up, "URAHARA KISUKE! How dare you return to the Soul Society after you've been banished!"

Kisuke stood his ground not even quivering "I'm sorry supreme commander, but this is important and you weren't accepting any of my calls".

Yamamoto huffed "That's what happens when you're banished, now state this important information and get out!" The other captains nodded in agreement.

Kisuke sighed "I'm afraid that Inoue Orihime has been killed by a hollow an-" as soon as Kisuke said that captain Yamamoto stood up,

"You may be sad about that Kisuke but humans get killed all the time and just because the girl had some skill doesn't make it any more important".

Kisuke sighed "Captain Yamamoto I was not finished if I may?" Yamamoto huffed and nodded and Kisuke continued. "as you know recently the Ryoka have been training in order to prepare themselves for the upcoming war," the captains nodded, " Ichigo is a special case so I sent him to have special training with the vizards-"

Captain Yamamoto stood up once again "you sent that unstable boy to train with those traitors!"

Kisuke coughed "er um yes, but that's not the problem, I haven't had any contact with Ichigo in about 3 weeks, and the Vizards seem to have disappeared off my radar".

The meeting chamber was in uproar.

X-X-X

Nox sat down on his bed, he had had a solid week of training with the other Espada's and he was exhausted. He sighed and stood up heading towards his bathroom, he stopped in front of the mirror. There was little change to his appearance since he had become an Espada.

His fur around his wrists and neck was gone, and so were the black markings coming out of his hollow hole. Also his mask was gone with a sliver of it going down his face covering most of his right eye and going down to his chin. He also had two large horns protruding out of his head and ending about a foot in front of his face, they looked slightly like that of a bull. His only other change was that his nails were now black, everything else including his black and gold eyes stayed the same, except for his outfit.

He now wore a white Las Noches cloak that he wore open on the top and was shredded a bit on the fringes.

Nox intently stared at himself and then stripped and stepped into the shower. It seemed that the rooms for Espada at Las Noches were fairly up to date, unlike those of the soul society.

He stood under the shower until all of the sweat and grime from training was wiped off of his skin. Nox turned off the shower and dried himself with a white towel, then got dressed and headed towards the cafeteria.

Espada themselves don't ever have to eat but the other Arancarnar of Las Noches don't have the same pleasure so usually Espada only entered the cafeteria to use it as a meeting place or gloat to the lesser Arancar, Nox was using it for the former.

Upon entering the cafeteria Nox found it to be bustling with lower rank arrancar getting their fill of substitute souls and talking amongst themselves. Nox frowned at them as he walked through the cafeteria, _those ingrates have no class_, he thought with a slight frown on his face. Nox weaved his way through the Arancar until he found his sparring partner for the day at a table filled with wide eyed Arrancar.

Nox walked over to Grimmjow who seemed to have the Arrancar enthralled with a made up story about how Grimmjow took down a lieutenant rank soul reaper. Nox stood behind Grimmjow, who had yet to notice him, listening to the story for awhile until he became bored.

"Grimmjow" he said quietly, but it seemed like the entire cafeteria had heard him. Everyone turned to him, they may not have seen him before but his gravely distorted voice was unmistakable and the entire cafeteria instantly froze.

Grimmjow slowly turned around and the Arancar he was previously talking to stood open mouthed. Not many lower rank Arancarnar had yet to see the new Numero Cero, but all have heard of his power and rumors of his unmistakable looks and voice. Grimmjow smirked "Hey Nox, ready for our session?"

"The question is not am I ready for you but are you ready for me." Nox Drawled emotionlessly.

Grimmjow frowned "Whatever you say buddy, I've been waiting for my turn to fight you ever since you arrived".

Nox looked at Grimmjow for a second until he turned and headed towards the exit of the cafeteria with Grimmjow right on his heels. Grimmjow smirked as they left the cafeteria which was still in silence "sure know how to make an entrance don't you Cero?"

Nox didn't respond and kept walking towards the exit of Las Noches. They walked in silence until they reached the desert just outside the walls or Las Noches. Nox turned around to face Grimmjow who smirked "whenever you're ready" he said.

Nox stood and then Disappeared in an instant and reappeared behind Grimmjow, Nox kicked Grimmjow in the back but Grimmjow blocked just in time with his arm. Nox leaped into the air and fired a cero at Grimmjow using his hand.

Grimmjow appeared behind Nox relatively unscathed except that his shirt was burned off, he grabbed Nox's arm from behind but Nox head butted Grimmjow with the back of his head and while Grimmjow was dazed he punched him in the face, sending Grimmjow flying to the ground.

Grimmjow flipped over and landed on his feet breathing hard. "nice punch kid," he huffed.

Nox jumped down to him and held out a hand to him smiling, Grimmjow smiled, happy that Nox was actually showing some emotion. He reached up and grabbed Nox's hand but when he was upright Nox spun around and snapped Grimmjow's arm in half. Grimmjow howled in pain and Nox just looked at him.

"Never show compassion, all it leads to is betrayal" he said and then walked away, leaving Grimmjow standing in the sand shocked.

Nox returned to the confine of Las Noches, and headed towards Lord Aizen's chambers. Once near the door he heard Aizen on the other side say "enter". Nox nodded and did so silently entering the room, Aizen sat in his throne reading a book about mutations, Nox bowed on the floor in front of Aizen's throne.

Aizen smiled and closed the book "did you know Nox that most organisms with any sort of mutation die faster, but a small few of them live on to become stronger and carry on their mutation to their offspring creating a whole new species?"

"No Lord Aizen, I did not" Nox said tonelessly.

Aizen considered him for a moment, "hmm it is fascinating isn't it? Mutation".

Nox nodded "yes My Lord".

Aizen smiled "anyways, by what I heard from Szayel, you have bested Grimmjow in a weaponless fight, am I not correct?"

"You are My Lord" Nox replied.

"Well now that you are a master of weaponless combat having beat all of the other Espada, I believe it's time you had a weapon". A black sheathed sword materialized in front of Aizen's hand and he slid it over to Nox. "This is now your weapon, it is called Haikaitouma, and your formal Vasto Lord form and powers are sealed within it."

Nox looked towards the sword and took it from where it was on the ground, he held it in his hand and unsheathed it partly. The blade of the sword was red as of what Nox could see, he unsheathed the sword completely to see that the blade was jagged and had circle-like cuts out of the blade in some parts. The blade was blood red with jagged black lines stretching down the blade.

Nox looked at the blade in awe and Aizen laughed, "I know, beautiful isn't it? But don't be too hasty to use it all the time, never let the enemy know the full extent of your strength until it's necessary".

Nox nodded and sheathed the sword, he then strapped it to his side, and continued kneeling on the floor.

"Now," Aizen said "I don't think I'll have to teach you to use a sword, and when the time comes you'll know how to combine your powers and take on your final form. You are the strongest Espada I have but not all know it and since I made sure to have your number tattoo covered by your hair and the collar of your jacket, I would like you to take Harribel and go to the world of the living. It seems a few Soul Reapers and Ryoka are preparing to break into Hueco Mundo and raid Las Noches. I would like you to stop them before they successfully break in."

Nox nodded, stood up, bowed to Aizen, and was about to head to where he sensed Harribel's spiritual pressure but was stopped by Aizen's voice.

"Nox, if you or any other espada are in danger or taken hostage, the best course of action is to play along and wait until the opportunity arises for you to strike from the inside."

Nox looked at Aizen in confusion but Aizen just smiled with his eyes closed, "Just a precaution for future reference" he spoke.

Nox gave him an odd look and then left Aizen's presence to find Harribel.

X-X-X

Urahara Kisuke stood in front of the Kurosaki household, he contemplated his options. Then he made a decision, he walked up to the front door, opened it, and walked in. It was early afternoon so the girls were most likely in school and Kisuke could sense Ishiin in the living room.

Kisuke headed over there and knocked on the open door pane. Ishiin glanced up from where he was sitting on the couch and smiled. "Why Urahara, come on in. I was just filling out these patient forms." Ishiin stood up and placed the documents on the couch he was sitting on and he walked over to where Kisuke was standing in the doorway. "so Kisuke, what do I owe this pleasure?" Ishiin asked grinning.

Kisuke fidgeted and headed towards the couch "you might want to sit for this Ishiin." He said solemnly. Ishiin immediately recognized that the situation was serious and joined Urahara on the couch.

"Is this about Ichigo?" Ishiin asked and Urahara nodded solemnly. "Well what has that idiot son of mine done this time? He hasn't come home in a while so he must have gotten himself into some sort of trouble".

Urahara nodded solemnly "Ishiin did you know that Inoue Orihime is dead?" Kisuke said sadly.

Ishiin sighed and nodded "Uryu told me after we were attacked by the same hollow that killed her."

Kisuke's eyes widened "I didn't know that it was the same hollow. Hmm that's peculiar." He mumbled.

Ishiin looked at Kisuke sadly "please tell me what's happened to my son" he pleaded.

Kisuke had his mouth agape for a second then nodded "no one has seen or heard from Ichigo in about 3 and a half weeks. He was believed to have disappeared around the time that Orihime was killed. I went to the soul society a couple of weeks ago and saw if they could find him using a worldwide reiatsu scanner but the results came back negative".

Isshin looked at Kisuke expectantly "meaning what?".

Urahara sighed "meaning that he is not on this earth, he is either no longer living, or in Hueco Mundo."

Ishiin stood up and grabbed Urahara's jacket front "MY SON IS NOT DEAD! Aizen must have kidnapped him and is holding him in a cell where he can't escape from or he's lost in the Hueco Mundo desert and can't find his way back or or-"

Kisuke placed a hand on Isshin's shoulder "don't worry Ishiin no matter where he is we'll find him. I'll set up an expedition party to Hueco Mundo Immediately".

Ishiin pulled Urahara close to his face "I'm going" he said simply. He grabbed his paper's and headed towards the clinic leaving Kisuke behind flabbergasted.

"But Isshin!" Kisuke shouted "Ichigo may not still be…."

"I Know" Isshin said heading back to Kisuke after having dropped off his papers. He headed over to the couch and laid down, he then closed his eyes and split his soul from his gigai. He got up leaving behind the empty gigai. "It's ok if I leave my gigai here, Karin will be able to tell what's happened" Isshin said and headed to the front door leaving Urahara trailing behind him.

"Isshin, I'm going to make a rift under my shop and take the two ryoka, Kuchiki, and Abarai." Urahara explained "the rift should be opened within a few hours, I already have Tessai working on it".

Isshin grunted in response and Kisuke sighed "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into" Kisuke mumbled, and they both headed towards Urahara shop.

X-X-X

Nox and Harribel stepped out of the rift which led them to an area above the main housing district. Nox dropped onto a roof with Harribel copying his actions. Nox looked at Harribel "Lord Aizen said the trespassers are opening the rift at a shop called Urahara. It is run by an ex soul reaper captain so look for the place with the largest reiatsu".

Harribel nodded and the two split up and explored the city, Nox was inspecting the shopping district when Harribel flash stepped in front of him. "Graz-sama, I have located the shop, within it seem to be two ryoka, four soul reapers, and three unknowns". She explained and Nox nodded.

"Harribel keep your Reiatsu low so we can easily get to the rift undetected and destroy it and any means for them to ever make one again".

Harribel nodded and the two Sonido'd onto the roof of Urahara shop. Nox felt the reiatsu coming from the shop, it was large but nothing that two Espada couldn't handle. They slipped in the front door, which was wide open, looking around the shop it appeared to be empty, but on detection it appeared all the residents were underground.

Harribel and Nox quickly found the entrance to the underground floors and headed down towards the gathered people.

X-X-X

Urahara stood in front of the nearly open rift, looking at the gathered group. Uryu and Chad were standing with Rukia and Renji while Isshin was standing awkwardly off to the side, with Tessai working on the rift, and the kids sitting near him.

Urahara cleared his throat in order to gain attention. "Ok guys when the rift to Hueco Mundo opens you'll need to split up into small groups of two or three, one group distracts Aizen while another finds Ichigo. Got it?" All five of them nodded and headed towards Kisuke who was standing near the rift but stopped when they heard a voice.

"I foresee a few problems with your plan" a chilling voice said from behind them.

The group turned around and Kisuke visibly paled, standing there were two Arrancars. Both of them were clad in white, one was female with tan skin, a high collared top that showed her stomach and sides of her thighs, and had blonde hair. The other Arrancar had an open shirt, long orange hair, two large horns, and black and gold eyes.

Rukia gasped "Ichigo?"

X-X-X

Nox glared at the black haired soul reaper "I know not of this Ichigo" He said tonelessly.

The female soul reaper made a choking sound and the older male whispered something to her and she replied. Nox glared at them and stepped forward but the red haired Shinigami rushed to meet him.

Nox held up a hand and Harribel intercepted the soul reaper and knocked him across the training grounds. Nox turned his attention back to the group who was wide eyed "Your plan would fail because one, there are Arrancars in Hueco Mundo much stronger then my partner and I" Harribel gave Nox a weird look at that but didn't object, so Nox continued "Two, Las Noches is filled with Arrancar that would be on you in seconds if you even made it near the walls, and three, I have never in my time as an Arrancar heard or seen any Ichigo."

The female Shinigami sobbed and the older male grimaced. Nox smiled chillingly "Now if you would excuse us, we have to obliterate this base completely". An arrow of light came out of nowhere and pierced Nox in the shoulder. Harribel went to help him but he stopped her with a raised hand.

Nox pulled the arrow out easily and crushed it with his bare hand, his wound closed instantly and the group gathered gasped.

The Ryoka with the glasses pointed at Nox, "You're the hollow that killed Orihime!" He seethed.

Nox shrugged and suddenly the entire group charged at him. Harribel jumped in front of Nox and attacked the two Ryoka and the female soul reaper while Nox took on the older Shinigami and the green one.

The bearded Shinigami charged forwards and swung down his sword which Nox grabbed in his hand, the green Shinigami tried to attack in a second rush but Nox released some of his spiritual pressure causing both shinigami to briefly drop to the ground.

Nox grabbed the Shinigami in front of him and pulled him in close "I remember you," he said and the Shinigami's eyes filled with hope but were crushed with his next words "I recognize your smell, from when you interrupted my meal at that house".

The Shinigami closed his eyes and when he opened them they were filled with rage "You mean my daughter's!" Isshin yelled in Nox's face.

Nox shrugged and then smiled, "I can have all of the Hollows in the city attack them within a second".

Isshin was heartbroken "Ichigo, my son, what's happened to you?"

Nox dropped the man and placed a foot on his chest, adding pressure and looming over the man ominously, his face blank of emotion. Isshin started coughing up blood from the pressure.

Suddenly a blade was caught in Nox's hand and he turned to see the green Shinigami Kisuke. Nox kicked the now unconscious Isshin away from him and started his attack on Kisuke.

X-X-X

Harribel rushed the Quincy who frantically shot arrows at her but she quickly disarmed him by snapping both of his arms, causing him to fall on the ground screaming in pain.

The female Shinigami and the Ryoka attacked her from both sides and she effectively held them both off, she hesitantly took a glance at Nox who had defeated one of the Soul Reapers and was now sparring with the other one, barely using a fraction of his power.

She quickly turned her attention back to the battle she was fighting and barely dodged a punch from the ryoka which then hit the soul reaper in the stomach, sending her flying back a few feet. The soul reaper quickly fell to the ground, the Ryoka stood there a minute before rushing off to help her.

As the Ryoka rushed off, Harribel came up behind him and with a swift blow to the head rendered him unconscious.

Harribel gave a soft bell like chuckle and headed towards where Nox was standing atop the green Soul Reaper.

X-X-X

Nox looked around in disappointment, if these were the strongest that the soul society has to offer then this war will easily be in the Arrancars favor. Nox looked to where Harribel was standing and motioned her over to him. She swiftly approached, "Harribel bring me the Quincy and one of the four Soul Reapers" Nox said.

Harribel nodded and went over to retrieve the Quincy, Nox watched as she came back and dropped the Quincy at his feet and then went to retrieve the scruffy looking Soul Reaper that had black hair.

Nox smirked; Harribel was smart, that Soul Reaper was obviously the strongest of the entire group so it would be worth the effort to bring him back to Lord Aizen if it meant that the Soul Society was losing an asset.

Harribel was walking back when a sword came out of nowhere and hit her in the side. In surprise she dropped the Soul Reaper and clutched her side. From out of the rubble came the red haired male Shinigami wielding his sword.

Nox smirked "ah now I remember where I recognize that sword, you were the one who did a real number on me back at that scruffy Soul Reapers house". The red haired Shinigami's eyes widened.

"You're the bastard that killed Orihime!" He cried.

Nox shrugged showing no emotion on his face "what's with you people, first this Ichigo and then Orihime? What got over him fast enough did you?"

The red head shook and was about to charge but Nox held up a hand. "if I were you I would follow the lead of those other three and make yourself scarce, I'm about to ignite this entire compound and everyone inside it".

The Shinigami's eyes widened and he ran over to where Chad and Rukia were laying and he heaved them onto his back. He then ran over towards Kisuke and once he had all three he Shunpo'd out of the building.

Nox chuckled and Harribel hobbled over dragging the Shinigami with her. "Why did you let them escape?" she asked.

Nox looked at her "so that they may spread the story of the horrors of Aizen's Army" he said simply and he held up a hand. A rift immediately opened and Harribel hobbled through it dragging the Shinigami behind her, while Nox put the Quincy on his back and stood in the edge of the rift.

He turned towards the chamber and charged a cero in between his horns. Most of his hollow abilities are within his mask fragments so using a cero with his hollow horns would increase its power. Once the cero was about the size of a basket ball Nox released it and jumped into the rift, listening to the destruction of the shop as the gate closed behind him.

X-X-X

Renji stumbled into the park and collapsed on the ground, Rukia and Kisuke lying next to him still unconscious.

Renji sighed and fumbled in the pocket of his hakama until he found his communicator. He grunted and heaved himself into a sitting position. He wiped the sweat off of his face and opened his communicator.

"Captian Kuchiki" he choked into the communicator. Soon the screen was alight with a picture of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki's face.

"What do you want Renji? I was just about to enjoy an afternoon tea" Byakuya said holding up his tea cup.

Renji held back a sob "Captain! I need medical attention at my location immediately! Urahara shop has been obliterated! And a ryoka and Isshin Kurosaki have been kidnapped and I don't even know where the people who lived in Urahara's shop went!"

Byakuya immediately tensed "I see this is a serious matter, I'll bring help immediately. When I get there tell me everything that happened."

Renji nodded "One more thing captain" Renji shifted uneasily "it was Ichigo".

X-X-X

Nox walked over to the cell that held the black haired shinigami know identified as Isshin Kurosaki, a previous captain in the Soul Society. Nox lip quirked upward for a second and then resumed its neutral look, having a shinigami captive would be… interesting, and he walked up the stairs towards the meeting room.

He had given the Quincy to Szayel, who was quite thrilled to examine such a rare subject; it seems that Quincy's are hard to come by these days.

Nox entered the meeting room and noticed that it was mostly empty except for a few Espada milling around and chatting. Nox spotted Grimmjow, Aeruneiru, Nnoitra, Yammy, and Stark and Lilinette. Grimmjow noticed Nox and waved him over, Nox sighed and walked over to where Grimmjow was leaning against a wall, since Nox had beaten him earlier Grimmjow had somehow gotten the idea into his head that they were friends.

"Hey Nox, wanna go to the world of the living?" Grimmjow asked casually.

Nox looked at Grimmjow with a hint of a frown, "Did Lord Aizen authorize this little adventure you've concocted?" he asked.

Grimmjow smirked "'Course he did! He's so busy with those prisoner's that you brought in that he doesn't care what we do!"

Nox looked around the room at the Espada that were either chatting or lazing around, _well there's nothing better to do_. "Fine I will accompany you to the world of the living" Nox replied.

Grimmjow smirked and walked swiftly out of the room motioning Nox to follow, Nox frowned, _anything that has to do with Grimmjow always ends badly._ He sighed and followed Grimmjow out of the room.

X-X-X

Aizen Sosuke headed down the dimly lit hallway towards the laboratory of Szayel Aporro Granz. He slid open the thin doorway and entered the lab, Szayel looked up from where he was standing over the examination table which currently held a mostly naked Quincy.

Szayel looked up at the sound of Aizen's footsteps and his face lit up "Ah My Lord! What a wonderful surprise! No doubt you want to hear how my research on the Quincy is going?" Aizen nodded and Szayel grabbed his chart and walked over to Aizen. "His stamina is great, but not his power, he has amazing reflexes and excellent aim, his speed is also amazing."

"stop complimenting him Szayel, can we use him?" Aizen asked.

Szayel huffed "ok, ok. I believe that if I were to experiment on him some I would be able to find the source of his power and then should be able to equip it to an Arrancar or many Arrancar's."

Aizen thought about this then turned towards the door "I want a small army of Arrancar's equipped with the power of a Quincy within a week".

Szayel was flabbergasted but then calmed down "I am glad that you have so much faith in me Lord Aizen, I will not fail you!"

Aizen strode out of the room "For your sake you better not".

X-X-X

Grimmjow smirked and walked out of the rift, "I've got some Gigai's ready for us in a warehouse"

Nox looked at Grimmjow calculatingly and followed him out of the rift, "so you have been planning this for awhile and knew that I would accept your offer to join you here."

Grimmjow grinned and jumped onto the busy street below. Nox followed his lead "so what are you planning to do with these Gigai's?" Nox asked.

Grimmjow huffed "Why does everything have to have a purpose for you? We're just going to relax in the living world for awhile. You just exceeded Lord Aizen's expectations on that last mission so he told me to take you on a mini vacation before the real battle begins".

Nox thought about that and then nodded, "alright take me to this warehouse".

Grimmjow nodded and disappeared with Nox following close behind him.

X-X-X

The Gotei 13 sat in a meeting, discussing the recent dealings with the Arrancar and the rumors that they had heard of Urahara shop being destroyed.

"QUIET!"

All of the captains became silent and turned to Captain Yamamoto who was hitting his cane against the ground.

Yamamoto harrumphed and then addressed the other captains "it appears that since our last meeting, Aizen's army made an attack against the Urahara Shop in Karakura Town".

Yamamoto's statement caused more gossiping but Yamamoto stopped it by hitting his cane against the ground again.

"Captain Kuchiki knows more about the incident, having heard every detail of it first hand from his Lieutenant who was at Urahara Shop at the time of the attack". Yamamoto nodded to Byakuya who stood up.

Byakuya looked at the gathered Captains and then spoke "1 earth day ago, there was a coordinated attack against the Shinigami supply store known as Urahara Shop in Karakura Town, Japan. This attack consisted of two Arrancars both seemingly high level. The Arrancars attacked the underground chamber of Urahara shop as the owner of the shop, Urahara Kisuke, was about to open a rift to Hueco Mundo in order to lead a rescue mission to rescue Kurosaki Ichigo who was supposedly kidnapped by Aizen. The Arrancars immediately disposed of Lieutenant Abarai, who had to be briefed by ex captain Urahara to get the full story, after Lieutenant Abarai was incapacitated the Arrancars took on the other four occupants of the room one against two. It appears that one of them, a female, took on Kuchiki Rukia, and Ishida Uryu. While the other attacked Urahara Kisuke and Kurosaki Isshin. The Arrancars effectively took down all four of their opponents. They were trying to capture the Quincy and Kurosaki when lieutenant Abarai returned and intercepted the seemingly higher rank male Arrancar, but before he attacked the Arrancar informed him that the shop was about to be destroyed and that everyone currently inside would die, so lieutenant Abarai took as many as he could and got away from the building before it blew. The Arrancar kidnapped Ishida Uryu and Kurosaki Isshin, also it appears that the male Arrancar is actually the missing Kurosaki Ichigo. It seems that somehow Aizen can maybe brainwash Soul Reapers into working for him and turn them into Arrancars".

The meeting was in uproar at that and Captain Yamamoto had to settle them down. "if Aizen's Arrancars are as powerful as Captain Kuchiki says then we will have to begin building up our forces immediately in preparation for an attack on Hueco Mundo. We have to attack them before they get any more powerful and attack us off guard". Yamamoto informed the Captains, "Meeting adjourned, go inform your squads of what was spoken here tonight".

The captains all left in a rush except for Zaraki Kenpachi who slowly walked out of the meeting hall. He had a dark expression on his face, _Kurosaki Ichigo, the one who will defeat you in battle will be me, I won't let anyone else kill you until I can get a chance to have some fun with you._

X-X-X

Nox stepped out of the empty warehouse stretching out the stiff joints of his Gigai. Grimmjow groaned behind him.

"uggh Szayel always makes such crappy Gigais" Grimmjow complained as the two walked down the alley towards the main street.

They walked past a bunch of vendors until they came upon a hot dog stand. They were heading towards a shopping outlet when Grimmjow stopped and smelled the air, he then smirked and dragged Nox over to the stand.

"What are we doing here?" No whispered angrily.

Grimmjow grinned "Don't you want to feel the sensation of eating again, after so long?"

Nox frowned "Not particularly".

Grimmjow pouted and ordered them two plain hot dogs.

Nox looked around at the busy street; there were humans all around them. Nox wrinkled his nose at their smell, they smelled like they carried every place they'd ever been with them, it was overpowering him. He turned back to Grimmjow who handed him a hot dog and started walking towards the mall they were headed to.

Once into the less crowded mall they started munching on the hot dogs, but as soon as they'd swallowed, they rushed to the nearest trash can and emptied the contents of their stomachs.

Grimmjow sunk to his knees his throat feeling raw. "That…was….awful" He croaked. Nox agreed and slumped down into the nearest bench, staring up at the ceiling.

"This vacation is unnecessary," Nox stated "We would be of more help in preparing for the war if we were back in Las Noches".

Grimmjow sighed "I think Lord Aizen may believe that there is nothing for you to do back home. I believe he thinks that you would probably end up cooped in your room all day so you might as well enjoy yourself, since it may be the last time you get to do so."

Nox just stared at Grimmjow, and Grimmjow shrugged, "it was just a guess".

Nox stood up and helped Grimmjow off of the floor and they explored the six story mall, Aizen had previously given Grimmjow an unlimited credit card so they just shrugged and bought a bunch of souvenirs to bring back to everyone. They had also gotten some new clothes, because since both the gigai's had the same clothes on it would be kind of strange for them to be walking around together.

Nox exited the store wearing a pale grey long sleeve shirt, a grayish black jacket with gold lining, dark black skinny jeans, and dark red converse. Grimmjow had gotten a black t shirt, a black leather jacket with a dark blue panther on the back, faded black jeans, and dark grey shoes.

When the two had finally left the store they had two bags of souvenirs for the other Espada, and Aizen and his friends. Nox looked at the sky and saw that the sun was setting already. Grimmjow frowned at it at sighed,

"C'mon we should probably be getting back to the warehouse," Grimmjow said sadly. The two walked back to the abandoned warehouse in silence.

X-X-X

Isshin had been locked in that cell for about two days, he frowned and looked at his Zanpukto sitting solemnly on the desk on the far wall outside of the cell. He had been handcuffed and chained to the wall so there was no possible way of him getting out unless he had help.

Isshin sighed and laid down on the cold stone floor, he couldn't even remember how he had gotten here. All remembered was seeing his son's cold gaze on him and then nothing.

Isshin shuddered with despair at the way his son had looked at him. His eyes had been filled with so much hate, Aizen must have captured him and fed him enough lies to make him hate them that much as to not even acknowledge that he knows them.

Isshin held back a tear at the thought of what had become of Masaki and his son.

He immediately stiffened as he heard footsteps coming his way.

Aizen headed towards the cell that held the Soul Reaper that Nox had captured, Nox had dropped off the prisoner in the cell and had informed him that the Soul Reaper's power rivaled that of a Captain.

Aizen stopped in front of the cell and looked down at its contents, and then had to hold back his laughter.

Nox had captured his own father! Aizen let a chuckle escape and the Soul Reaper's head whipped up to glare at him.

"Aizen" the Soul Reaper spat.

"Kurosaki Isshin" Aizen said smiling.

"What the fuck have you done to my son!" Isshin hissed.

Aizen laughed "I have done nothing to him but grant him the power he so craved".

Isshin's face filled up with rage "Ichigo would never betray his friends and family for power!" Isshin yelled.

Aizen smirked "well maybe you don't know your son as well as you thought." He said and swiftly walked away leaving a stunned Isshin behind.

Aizen smirked when he was out of Isshin's sight, now that they think that Ichigo consciously betrayed everyone he loved they'll have a harder time fighting him, and they'll try to get him back on their side. Aizen started laughing out loud, all their efforts will be fruitless and Nox will have no idea what any of those idiot Soul Reapers are blathering about!

Aizen laughed all the way to the meeting room, thoroughly freaking out a lot of minor Arrancars.

X-X-X

Nox opened his eyes to a new day and Grimmjow crouching over something. Nox stretched and got up, slowly making his way towards Grimmjow who was holding something in his hands and seemingly inspecting it.

Nox loomed over him "What are you doing?" he asked quietly.

Grimmjow jumped, not expecting Nox to be up so early he turned around and hid the thing behind his back. Nox glared and grabbed his arm and pulled it forward, examining what Grimmjow had been holding. He frowned at it, it was orange and small and looked to be shiny underwear.

He looked over to Grimmjow who was sweating, "What is that?" he asked accusingly.

Grimmjow smiled in a shaky way, "a speedo?".

Nox frowned, "And what exactly is a speedo?" he inquired.

Grimmjow hesitantly scratched his head, "it's for swimming" he remarked after thinking on it for a bit.

"And why do you have one?" Nox asked raising an eyebrow.

Grimmjow smirked, "actually I have two, that one's yours".

"Then why do we need these Speedos?" Nox asked.

Grimmjow shifted his weight onto one foot, "well I was thinking that since this is a vacation that we should go to the beach, since that's what people normally do on vacations".

Nox pondered this and then nodded, "We have a limited amount of time for this vacation so we should go to this beach as soon as possible."

Grimmjow smirked and stuffed a bunch of stuff he had bought into a backpack and then ran out the door, he turned around when he made it to the entrance, "I'll race you to the bus!" and he ran out of Nox's sight.

Nox sighed and jogged to catch up with him.

XxXxXxXx

Nox looked upon the beach in awe, the sun was high in the sky, filling the area with its warm glow. The sand sparkled like small diamonds, and the water crashed perfectly so that every second looked like a painting. A gentle breeze blew through the air and Nox sighed in pleasure, _this should be how the entire world is._

Grimmjow looked at Nox and smirked, he knew that Nox would like it here. Any hollow would like the beach, it was like the desert of Hueco Mundo but more warm and happy. He spotted a changing stall and snapped Nox out of his daze.

Nox glanced at Grimmjow who was waving his arms around, Grimmjow made a motion at a stall and threw Nox his swimsuit and a black and white checkerboard towel. Nox caught them easily and followed Grimmjow to the stall, Grimmjow walked to the entrance and then turned to Nox.

"Ok I'm going to get changed in here, there should be another stall somewhere around here. You can find that one and then we'll meet back somewhere and set up our stuff. It looks pretty empty but if you meet anyone and they ask for your name, make something up." Grimmjow explained.

Nox held his gaze on Grimmjow and then turned and headed down the beach. He walked for a bit and then came upon a tent labeled changing. Nox went in and changed into his orange Speedo quickly and then gracefully walked out.

He glanced around the beach and spotted a bright blue umbrella and walked towards it, _Grimmjow must have changed fast and started setting things up._

Nox approached the umbrella warily noticing that there was no one near it. He walked right up to it and noticed that the bag sitting on a chair was not the one that Grimmjow had previously. A light breeze blew by and Nox got a whiff of human on the stuff, but his nose wasn't as good as Grimmjow's so he couldn't tell how long ago the humans had been there.

"What are you doing with our stuff!"

Nox frowned, _it seems not very long ago._ He stood up from where he had been leaning over the beach accessories and turned around. He came face to face with three humans, one female and two males.

Nox smoothed out his hair "I apologize for seeming suspicious, it's just that I thought that this stuff belonged to my….companion", Nox smiled charmingly and both of the boys smiled back earnestly, as the wind blew Nox's long hair around him.

The girl frowned at him, she had black spiky hair and accusing eyes. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Nox frowned at her, she was going to be harder to sway into ignoring him, "My name is…Yuusuke, and I'm here obviously to enjoy this beach" Nox stated matter of factly, and the girl frowned at him.

"Why are you at the beach at this time? It's October." She asked looking smug like that she knew he didn't have an answer for that.

Nox narrowed his eyes and smiled "I enjoy the cool air, and the cold water. Also it is not as crowded this time of the year. Now may I ask why you are here?"

The girl looked at the ground and the boys avoided making eye contact with Nox. There was an awkward silence until the smaller boy, with black hair that stuck out on the sides and black eyes, spoke. "We used to come here at this time with everyone. But not since Orihime died and Ichigo went missing, and now we never see Rukia, Chad, or Uryu and everyone else avoids us because they think its cursed being our friends."

The girl glared at the boy who looked away blushing, the girl was about to speak when they heard yelling in the distance. Nox spotted Grimmjow running towards them waving his arms, when he got there he bent over, panting. "Man I thought I'd never find you, good thing I spotted your hair."

Grimmjow looked up and saw the people staring at him weird and he immediately closed his mouth. The girl looked at Nox,

"I take it this is your friend you were looking for?" She asked and Nox nodded.

Grimmjow smirked, "I'm Torao, nice to meet you my lady." Grimmjow did a bow and held out his hand to the black haired girl and she frowned.

"My name's Tatsuki and behind me are Mizuiro and Keigo." She said.

Nox nodded, "Well nice to meet you, maybe we'll see each other around the beach?" he asked politely and the girl blushed and nodded.

Nox flashed his charming smile causing all three to blush this time and he walked away with Grimmjow in tow.

Once far enough away Grimmjow laughed "Nox you are something else, with only a few words you had that girl wrapped around your finger!"

Nox shrugged it off, "It was no big deal, also if you see those people again today my name is Yuusuke".

Grimmjow smirked and then nodded, "well enough of that, let's have some fun today!" He shouted and ran towards the ocean. Nox shrugged and followed him into the water.

Nox and Grimmjow fooled around all day, making epic sandcastles that beat Tatsuki and her friends', had a game of chicken which Grimmjow and Nox won, and had a Barb Q with a fire and everything.

Nox sighed when it was over; the day had been enjoyable to say the least. But tomorrow they would return to Hueco Mundo in order to prepare for the coming war.

X-X-X

**AN: ** Finally the second part is done! I only recently finished editing it in an attempt to fix all grammatical errors. Anyways there is only one more part after this, there may be a sequel if enough people are interested in it but it's not definite since I'm going to make an attempt to consistently update my two other multi chapter stories. If you notice any errors in anything or have any suggestions or concern about the story just review and I will attempt to get back to you immediately.

Thanks for reading,

-KaosDemon


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